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PEOPLE: MAX MOSLEY

The second son of politician Sir Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford, Mosley spent his childhood in Ireland before being sent to school in France and later at Stein an der Traun in Germany. In 1958 he won a place at Christ Church College, Oxford, He was secretary of the Oxford Union and graduated with a degree in physics in 1961. He began reading law at Grays Inn in London and qualified as a solicitor in 1964.

After a visit to Silverstone in the early 1960s he became involved in racing. He raced mainly club events but in 1968 graduated to Formula 2, having founded the London Racing Team with Chris Lambert. After Lambert was killed in an accident with Clay Regazzoni at Zandvoort in August 1968 Mosley became Piers Courage's team mate in Frank Williams's F2 team.

He decided to retire from driving in 1969 and established March Engineering with Robin Herd, Alan Rees and Graham Coaker. The company was a great success as a racing car production company and March cars won many championship although the company never really lived up to its potential in Formula 1. Jackie Stewart drove to victory at the Spanish GP of 1970 but the March Racing factory team won only twice with Vittorio Brambilla in Austria in 1975 and with Ronnie Peterson at Monza in 1976. Mosley became increasingly involved in the activities of FOCA and after March withdrew from F1 at the end of 1977 Mosley quit March and became the legal advisor to FOCA and a member of the FISA F1 Commission.

He played a leading role in the FISA-FOCA war of 1980-82, which led to the Concorde Agreement, of which he was one of the architects. After the political battles were over Mosley took three years out of the sport before becoming president of the Manufacturers Commission at the FIA in 1986. At the same time he was involved in the establishment of Simtek Research in 1989 although he sold his shareholding in the company when he became president of the FISA (the sporting subsidiary of the FIA) in 1991, ousting Jean-Marie Balestre by 43 votes to 29. Mosley announced that he would resign after a year so that he could be judged on his merits and 12 months later he was re-elected for a four-year term. He then engineered the merger between the FIA and the FISA and in October 1993 became the FIA President for a four year period. He was re-elected in October 1997 and again in 2001 and 2005.